Amazon is expanding its business beyond Earth's boundaries, with plans to deploy more than 3,000 satellites that will beam internet connectivity across the planet. The company announced deals with three rocket companies that will launch those satellites.
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The deal involves two rocket-building veterans, United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin and European company Arianespace , as well as Blue Origin, the rocket company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, which is still working on developing rockets capable of reaching orbit.
The contracts include up to 83 launches in total, which Amazon calls one of the largest commercial deals ever signed. The launches will take place over a period of about five years. All three rockets that Amazon plans to use for these missions have not yet been commissioned, but are expected to be operational later this year or in 2023. Financial details were not disclosed.
In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Dave Limp, Amazon's senior vice president of devices and services, said only that the contracts would cost Amazon "billions."
See also: Elon Musk offers Internet with Starlink to Ukrainians.
He added that the company’s goal is to launch a few test satellites into orbit within the next year or so. And if all goes well, Amazon will deploy at least half of Project Kuiper’s constellation, or more than 1,600 satellites, by 2026. But the company could launch commercial services with just a few hundred satellites, Limp said. However, he declined to discuss how much the service might cost consumers.
Notably absent from the list of providers is Elon Musk’s SpaceX. While SpaceX has worked to dominate the commercial launch industry with its reusable rockets, Amazon’s space internet venture, called Project Kuiper, is expected to compete directly with SpaceX’s satellite internet venture, Starlink. Starlink is well ahead of Project Kuiper and other competitors, as the company has already deployed more than 2,000 satellites and signed up more than 145,000 customers around the world, SpaceX said in January.
Project Kuiper aims to use over 3,000 satellites in low Earth orbit to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to customers, including households, businesses and government agencies.
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Securing launch capacity from multiple providers reduces the risks associated with launch vehicle outages and saves costs that can be passed on to customers, said Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper.
Blue Origin's BE-4 engine, which will also power the Vulcan rocket, has faced multiple delays.
